Discuss “The Glass Menagerie” as an Expressionist play.
The Glass Menagerie is a notable literary work by Tennessee Williams. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, and various study materials of The Glass Menagerie.
Answer
Discuss “The Glass Menagerie” as an Expressionist play. [NU 2016] ✪✪✪
“The Glass Menagerie”(1944) by Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) is not a realistic play but an expressionist one. Williams uses lighting, music, and symbols to express emotions. The play shows inner truth instead of outer reality. It reveals the world of memory and feeling.
Meaning of Expressionism: Expressionism is a style that shows emotions, not facts. It expresses what the mind feels, not what the eyes see. Williams uses this technique to present Tom’s memories. The story becomes a dream filled with sound, color, and imagination. In Scene 1, Tom says,
“The scene is memory and is therefore nonrealistic.”
This line tells us that the play follows emotion, not logic. Everything on stage comes from Tom’s memory, that half-real and half-imagined.
Use of Light, Sound, and Music: Williams uses soft light and music to create feelings. The light shines warmly on Laura’s glass animals. It shows her delicate soul. The music “The Glass Menagerie” Theme plays again and again. It makes the audience feel sadness and tenderness. Tom says,
“In memory, everything seems to happen to music.”
This quote shows how memory turns life into art.
Use of Symbols and Stage Devices: Williams replaces realism with symbolic design. The screen projections show words or pictures to express ideas. The fire escape, the photograph, and the glass unicorn all have deep meaning. The lighting changes with emotion, bright for Amanda’s dreams, dim for Laura’s sadness. The play also uses “poetic truth.” Tom tells the audience,
“I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.”
Through illusion, Williams shows the real emotions of love, guilt, and failure.
Finally, it is clear that “The Glass Menagerie” is a pure expressionist play. It blends dream and reality. Williams uses light, sound, and symbol to express heart, not fact. Emotion becomes the truest form of truth.